Hello, I'm brand spanking new to this forum, but I've been chased here by the utter weirdness of the official GW2 forum. A few posts here led me to believe it's a different kind of community.

I've been reading the new book. Sea of Sorrows, and came to this passage about a boat collision:

“Her side was caved, her sleek curve wrenched apart, and water was pouring into her berth. She’d survive, but only if she could dislodge her unwanted suitor and plug the rent he’d made in her corseted hull.”

I was surprised. For a young adult book based on a sexless game that changes all its forum swear words to "kitten," this is a really suggestive passage. Ok, not 'suggestive' at all, it damn near states outright: this boat collision was totally like attempted sexual assault. Kinda violent one, too.

In the official forums I was told to grow up, and that I take offense too easily. Yeah, I'm not offended actually. The passage disturbs and interests me, especially considering the game it's attached to, and I found it compelling enough to see if it struck anyone else similarly.

That is actually a pretty powerful passage. I don't have the book myself, but this passage probably reflects the feelings of the crew/captain on the events. Ships are refereed to as female and one of the worst things in our minds as a culture is an assault of this nature on something/someone feminine. The passage isn't explicitly sexual as it uses all nautical jargon correctly to accurately describe much of what is happening but allows those whom can read the subtext to get that deeper feeling. Something they love has been assaulted in a terrible manner. They want it to stop and will do anything in their power to make that happen.

That is actually a pretty powerful passage. I don't have the book myself, but this passage probably reflects the feelings of the crew/captain on the events. Ships are refereed to as female and one of the worst things in our minds as a culture is an assault of this nature on something/someone feminine. The passage isn't explicitly sexual as it uses all nautical jargon correctly to accurately describe much of what is happening but allows those whom can read the subtext to get that deeper feeling. Something they love has been assaulted in a terrible manner. They want it to stop and will do anything in their power to make that happen.

Yeah, that's a good point. There's a lot of emotion packed into it for a description and it definitely adds to the shock of the moment within the story. There's also the fact that despite ships being referred to as women, the other boat is made male to strengthen the analogy.

The official forums would. They're not used to reading literature so you've probably offended their senses by making them think.

It seems to be quite a horrifying passage, aided by the fact that men tend to name their vessels after women. I can see the sexual connotations to it myself but the image it puts more in my head is that there's been a massive catastrophe. Out of context and having never read the book, it sounds like there was cannon fire that ruptured its side and pirates or enemy sailors have boarded their vessel; their maiden.

And don't be surprised that young adults would be reading something far darker than this. I've been a huge David Gemmell fan since I was 14.

Ship get rammed? No context but that seems to be what is described here. And it does seem to play on the "boats are precious maidens" deal.

I am much more bothered by how incredibly forced and unnatural the second sentence is. And by the terrible description of the hull being corseted.... ugh. That is such bad wordsmithing. Heck the first and second sentence clash in style.

Little Mabel won't be able to be here it's our worst fear. She's busy working on her garden that she's growing up in space.

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I should have given better context: two boats have collided. Our hero's ship is the one referred to as the female. Her unwanted suitor is the other ship, that the author has chosen to make male.

It makes sense to me that it's not obvious from the passage that the other thing is another boat... The author must have decided to go against convention and make it male just to add to the analogy being made. I guess it wouldn't have worked as well to have a female sexually assaulting another female?